In general, dynamic behavior of a vehicle is controlled by the suspension system of the vehicle. Such a vehicle suspension system includes individual suspensions disposed at each of front-left, front-right, rear-left, and rear-right corners of the vehicle.
In designing the vehicle suspension system, reduction of nose dive behavior of the vehicle is taken into account. The nose dive behavior indicates a behavior in which the vehicle body is inclined, that is, a behavior in which a front of the vehicle is lowered and a rear of the vehicle is raised.
In order to reduce such a nose dive behavior, in general, a front suspension is designed to enhance its anti-dive characteristic, and a rear suspension is designed to enhance its anti-lift characteristic.
In a typical rear suspension, a carrier (also called a knuckle) at which a wheel is rotatably mounted is linked to the vehicle body via at least one linking member. Among the linking members, a linking member that lies along a longitudinal axis of the vehicle is called a trailing arm.
Anti-lift characteristics of the rear suspension can be effectively enhanced by raising the vertical position of the body-side connection point of the trailing arm, i.e., raising the pivoting center of the trailing arm. When a braking force is applied to a rear wheel, the trailing arm receives a torque to rotate toward the vehicle body. Therefore, when the pivoting center of the trailing arm is raised, the trailing arm receives a greater torque to rotate toward the vehicle body, and accordingly the anti-lift characteristic of the rear suspension is enhanced.
However, when the pivoting center of the trailing arm is raised, a spring supporting the trailing arm shows a poorer extension/compression trajectory, and this deteriorates a trajectory of the rear wheel.
In this sense, according to the prior art, the vertical position of the pivoting center of the trailing arm is compromised such that the trajectory of the rear wheel is not excessively deteriorated. Therefore, enhancement of the anti-lift characteristic is very limited.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art that is already known to a person skilled in the art.